When political and economic thinking became more conservative in the 1970s and 1980s, governments began to promote the idea that individuals were personally responsible for their health and should practice healthy lifestyles. A large segment of the population – mainly the educated and economically secure – welcomed these ideas. Feeling personally responsible for one’s health and practicing healthy lifestyles gives one the reassuring illusion of control. In particular, it’s a good distraction from the things that are beyond individual control, like salmonella in our peanut butter and the superbug MRSA at the gym.
Tag Archive: inequality
Blogging: Time to get over it
The end of the American dream?
The future I most fear for America is Latin American: a grossly unequal society that is prone to wild swings from populism to orthodoxy, which makes sensible government increasingly hard to imagine. Look at the Tea Party. People think it came from nowhere. While I don’t agree with their remedies, most Tea Party members are middle-class Americans who have been suffering silently for years.
What musical instruments convey about social class
Here's an interesting observation on the associations between musical instruments and social class. It's from Paul Fussell’s Class: A Guide Through the American Status System (emphasis ...
A generation obsessed with material wealth
From Tony Judt’s Ill Fares the Land: As recently as the 1970s, the idea that the point of life was to get rich and that governments existed to facilitate ...
The new Chinese middle class and syphilis
In his recent book on the financial crisis, John Lanchester mentions China’s unprecedented economic growth, which has created a “hugely expanding, highly consuming new middle class.” China’s [middle class] went ...
Obesity: Moving beyond willpower vs. the food-industrial complex
Source: The Pilver Marc Ambinder has written a terrific article on obesity for The Atlantic. It's comprehensive and insightful, both objective and personal. Ambinder himself suffered from obesity until a year ago, when he went from 235 to 150 pounds following bariatric ...
How socialist is the US?
Source: VotingFemale The opponents of health care reform lost the battle, but their war is not over. They argue, among other things, that the legislation amounts to socialism. When Michael Steele, Chairman of the Republican Party, was asked if the health care ...
Tony Judt: On the edge of a terrifying world
Being “Danish” or “Italian,” “American” or “European” won’t just be an identity; it will be a rebuff and a reproof to those whom it excludes. The state, far from disappearing, may be about to come into its own: the privileges of citizenship, the protections of card-holding residency rights, will be wielded as political trumps. Intolerant demagogues in established democracies will demand “tests”–of knowledge, of language, of attitude–to determine whether desperate newcomers are deserving of British or Dutch or French “identity.” They are already doing so. In this brave new century we shall miss the tolerant, the marginals: the edge people. My people.
Obama on race and the Tea Party
Source: The Gospel Blog David Remnick's new book,
Our only language is English
Source: Teabonics When President Obama filled out his census form last week, he had to decide how to answer the race question. Even though his selection was only half true, he settled on the "Black, African American, or Negro" option. I ...
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Food :: The Atlantic
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Boo! Wyeth And Its Ghostwriting PracticesSeptember 8 12:54 pmStreet Anatomy
YEASAYER “Madder Red”September 8 12:03 pmInsideSurgery Medical Information Blog
Malaria Classic Clinical TriadSeptember 8 6:06 amMore Thyme Than Dough
Twinkie Twinkie Little FoodSeptember 8 4:10 amGary Schwitzer's HealthNewsReview Blog
Goldmines for drug and device makers in expanding heart markets: two important stories you shouldn't missSeptember 7 4:51 pmHealth News from NHS Choices
Heart risk from working late?September 7 4:41 pmMedical Futility Blog
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Advance Care Planning: A Paradigm ShiftAugust 30 2:29 am